How Many People Fled WA State in 2020? (COVID) IRS Releases Data

The IRS has released its annual reports showing migration patterns across the US.

Data based on income tax filings

According to the IRS, and including information shared by The Center Square, the data is compiled using tax returns. It shows people who were 'new' to WA state, filing for the first time here and those who had moved out of state.

The returns are based on 2021 filing data, which would have been for the year 2020. The IRS report shows 203,562 (along with dependents) who the year before had filed in another state. Another 217,696 former WA residents filed in other states for that period.

This comes out to a loss of 14,000 taxpayers. However, the IRS says the people who came in actually brought more revenue to the state by way of higher wages. The adjusted gross income by those who came in raised the state's input by about $200 million as opposed to those who left.

  Where did most people move to?

According to the IRS data, most of those who left went to California, some 28,000. Of those who moved to WA, 46.667 were from CA, the highest number from any other state.

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Overall, nationwide, the IRS data shows the states in 2020 that gained the most people were Florida, Texas, both North and South Carolina, and Tennessee.  Those who lost the most were CA, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Louisiana.

Those who did not file taxes were not part of the data in the study.